Applying To Our Doctoral (PhD) Program

Thank you for your interest in our doctoral program. If you haven't already, we suggest you first acquaint yourself with the program (and compare it to our Master's program) to determine that it's appropriate for your needs. Note that doctoral students can automatically earn a Master's degree on the way to completing their PhD, but Master's students don't automatically transition to the PhD track.

Please read our FAQ. It answers many of the questions you probably have.

Application Requirements

We expect strong results from our applicants in the following:

GRE General Exam

Record of grades or other academic performance

Letters of reference (you might suggest to your letter writers that they look at this site)

Applying

The strict deadline for the receipt of complete applications (including test scores and letters of recommendation) for entry in September is December 15. (We do not accept PhD applications to start at other times of the year.) If you're eligible for a fellowship, we'll determine this when you apply, so you don't need to mention it in your application.

You can complete the entire application on-line and we prefer you use this medium. You can get additional information from our FAQ and from the Graduate School's Web site. We strongly urge you to provide unofficial (scanned) copies of your transcripts as part of the electronic application. You will be prompted to mail an official copy of your transcript if you are accepted to the program.

Graduate applications are handled by a combination of Brown CS and the Graduate School. Your application is formally processed by the Graduate School. Its content is then read by members of Brown CS, who then forward their recommendations to the Graduate School. The Graduate School formally admits you to the program. Therefore, you may receive correspondence from either of these entities.